Hidden life teeming in our waters

MY visit to the National Aquarium of Ireland, the Galway Atlantaquaria, in October was enlightening and memorable.

Not being a deep-sea diver, I have never previously found myself within touching-distance of giant rays and skate swimming leisurely past me — indeed, I touched one as it surfaced nearby. Their grace, and the intricate and beautiful patterns with which nature has endowed them, held me in thrall as I stood at the edge of the large, open tank in which they swam.

While the open tanks, with water only a couple of metres deep, made the experience ‘close-up and personal’, the fish behind glass, in huge aquariums, were equally thrilling to watch, the shoals of big bass and pollock, and conger eels as long as two metres and as thick as one’s thigh reclining in weed-grown concrete pipes, their homes.